Like two tenacious boxers standing in the middle of a ring with no sense of limitations, the Shelby and A.C. Reynolds teams went at it Friday night at Blanton Memorial Stadium.

The non-conference matchup, the first ever between the two schools, turned into one of the wildest shootouts longtime football fans in these parts had ever seen. The two offenses moved up and down the field at will, combining for nearly 900 yards as the visiting Rockets came away with a 49-42 triumph.

With both teams executing their own version of the spread offense, it wasn’t settled until A.C. Reynolds scored in unusual fashion with 32.3 seconds to go. The Rockets’ Jave Jones carried 11 yards down to the one only to cough up a fumble that teammate Caelon Rhinehardt fell on in the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown.

Even with little time left, Shelby reached the Reynolds’ 42 before time ran out.

“Both teams made a lot of mistakes on defense,” said Shelby coach Lance Ware after his squad dropped to 1-1 on the season with a trip to South Point looming next week. “But they’re pretty good and their quarterback (Levi Ledford) really played well.”

There were four lead changes in the game with Shelby in front three different times. The fast pace of the offensive-minded contest was accentuated as the Golden Lions got touchdowns on punt returns by Jaquavis Brooks (59 yards) and Antwan Wright (63 yards). The Rockets also got a touchdown on a kick return, though it was a Shelby fumble on a kickoff return that ACR’s Gannon Redick picked up and ran in to the end zone.

“We just could never sustain the momentum,” said Ware. “We’d score, then we’d have them in third-and-12 or something like that, and they’d make a play and get the first down.”

Raekwon Washington and RJ George, in addition to big yardage nights, ran for two scores apiece for the Golden Lions.

The Rockets (1-1) got two passing touchdowns and one on the ground from Ledford while Jones crossed the goal line twice, in addition to his ‘run-and-fumble’ at the end.

The Golden Lions were driving with the score tied 42-all but coughed up a crucial fumble after reaching the two-yard line with four minutes left. Shelby lined up for the first time in a power running formation but mishandled a pitchout that the Rockets’ Chance Towery pounced on. A.C. Reynolds then marched 89 yards for the winning score.

“Our defense had been on the field for eight straight minutes around that punt return (by Wright),” said Ware. “And then we were back down there (at the goal line) in two plays. I wanted to run some clock but I should’ve kept going with what we were running.”

Both coaches were happy with the effort.

“I’m really proud of my guys,” said Laws. “They played hard and with a lot of guts and heart.”

Ware said that “we’ll get back out there and try to correct our mistakes. The good thing is that we don’t have to correct effort, and that’s a positive.”

Numbers, Numbers

Statisticians, scoreboard operators and sports writers more than had their hands full keeping up with the points and yardage in A.C. Reynolds’ wild 49-42 win over Shelby Friday night.

The two teams went up and down the turf at Pearley Allen Field at will it seemed for 91 total points and 897 yards of offense from the line of scrimmage. That didn’t even count all the special teams yardage piled up as Shelby ran two punts back for scores and the visiting Rockets picked up a fumble on kickoff and ran it into the end zone for a touchdown as well.

“No. 4 (Ledford) didn’t have a solid game last week and but he worked hard this week to lead this team and he did that and made some plays when it looked like we had nothing,” ACR head coach Shane Laws said. “And Jave had some big runs for us.”

Shelby could counter with big nights from running back Raekwon Washington and quarterback R.J. George. Washington ran for 161 yards and George passed for 151 more.

“We didn’t do a good job stopping Shelby’s skilled players and they are really good,” Laws said.